Prior to stardate5501, James T. Kirk visited Canopus III. During his visit, he witnessed the dinosaurs. In 2269, the crew of the USS Enterprise encountered a dinosaur in a desert environment on Lactra VII, that was very much like the dinosaurs native to Canopus III. Despite initially hypothesizing that similar environments prompt similar evolution in species, it was later determined that the beast was, in fact, transplanted to the planet by the Lactrans, who terraformed the desert terrain for the beast as part of their zoo exhibit. (TAS: "The Eye of the Beholder")